In a statement to Re/code, Apple has acknowledged the iMessage issue which affects customers who switch away from the iPhone, without disabling iMessage. This means that texts to these users are never delivered, as iPhone devices continue to use the iMessage protocol on the phone number that is no longer associated with an iPhone. Aside from a second-hand report by an AppleCare representative, this is Apple’s first official response to the recent criticism.

Ina Fried reports for Re/code:

“We recently fixed a server-side iMessage bug which was causing an issue for some users, and we have an additional bug fix in a future software update,” Apple told Re/code in a statement. “For users still experiencing an issue, please contact AppleCare.”

The nature of the software update is not clear, but likely means that iPhones more quickly revert to SMS when iMessage fails. The report also says that a server bug was preventing AppleCare representatives from intervening when customers called up about the fault. Apple says this has now been rectified and directs users to its support page that specifically discusses deactivating iMessage.

Despite the issue existing since iOS 5, the issue has captured public attention recently. Last week, Apple was sued over the problem in California on anti-competitive grounds.

its funny how they acknowledge this, but the amount of complaints they are receiving for battery life, they do not fix that. i am currently on an IPhone 5 and battery life is dreadful, and yes i have tried all the tips

It’s been fine for me. Facebook and using the WiFi hotspot are the two biggest killers. I usually have a good 50-60% left at the end of a typical day. Just be sure to kill Facebook and other social apps that keep their ears open to the network and you should be fine.

I’d go for incompetence more than unwillingness. The only reason they kept quiet for so long was because they wanted to know they could fix it before they told everyone they would. Apple always work like this. They’d rather ignore something than give false hope or screw it up.

@WaveMedia: You’re telling us that Apple was too incompetent to fix a bug that has existed for 3 years (iOS 5 came out in June of 2011) and yet announced a planned solution for the same bug within the same month of being sued over it. Either we’re to believe in a rather amazing case of coincidence, or that Apple was delaying ending a situation that caused former customers to have a negative experience on competitors’ phones, and many times return back to the fold, thus benefiting Apple. Whatever your feelings about Apple, it is a mistake to judge them incompetent, both in their product and their business practices.

The real comedy in this is that the bug is being fixed and it’s been there since iOS 5… HUH, iOS 5? So they’ve known about this bug but probably did nothing because in their minds it meant some customers might come back OR in their mind ‘it serves them right for leaving’. Seriously though it’s been around since iOS 5 and they are only just now doing something about it because it became a PR issue, they didn’t care about the customers… only their image. Thanks Apple

For all you know they’ve been trying to fix it since then. It’s not exactly a simple system. Just look at the security they use on the thing and you’ll see just how complex it truly is. They didn’t want to acknowledge it until they had some way of fixing it. It not seems to know how to do it and it’s on the way.

Yes it sucks, but it’s just the way things are. Software development on the scale that Apple do it is extremely complex. Just think of how much testing they have to do when they make one simple change.